OBJECTIVE There is evidence from animal studies that fluoxetine may enhance the concentrations of neuroactive steroids. Therefore, the authors investigated whether clinically effective treatment with antidepressants may alter the concentrations of neuroactive steroids in patients suffering from a major depressive episode. METHOD In the first study, eight drug-naive outpatients with major depr...

OBJECTIVE Brain imaging studies have shown that depressed individuals suffer from inadequate frontal lobe functions vis à vis smaller frontal lobes. The effects of depression's recurrent nature and long-term antidepressant treatment are not definitely known. This study aimed to examine frontal lobe volume at the onset of clinical depression by including first-episode drug-naive depressed patien...

BACKGROUND The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is used worldwide for detecting depressive symptoms. This questionnaire has been revised (1996) to match the DSM-IV criteria for a major depressive episode. We assessed the reliability and the validity of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the BDI-II for non-clinical adults. METHODS The questionnaire was applied to 60 college students on two occ...

INTRODUCTION Depression affects nearly 350 million people worldwide and is currently among the most disabling diagnosis in the world. Caregiver burden can be immense in unipolar depression. The present study seeks to fill the knowledge gap by evaluating sociodemographic factors affecting psychological health and burden in caregivers of patients with unipolar depression. METHOD Eighty outpatie...

In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of atypical and non-atypical depression comorbidity on the clinical characteristics and course of social anxiety disorder (SAD). A total of 247 patients with SAD were enrolled: 145 patients with a current depressive episode (unipolar or bipolar) with atypical features, 43 patients with a current depressive episode with non-atypical features and...

BACKGROUND Standardized questionnaires designed for the identification of depression are useful for monitoring individual as well as population mental health. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) has originally been developed to assist primary care health professionals to detect postnatal depression, but several authors recommend its use outside of the postpartum period. In Brazil, t...

OBJECTIVE The Geriatric Depression Scale for screening depressive symptoms in the elderly has not been assessed in elderly outpatients who seek primary health care in Brazil. The objective was to determine the validity of the Short Scale for Major Depressive Episode or Dysthymia (GDS-15) in elderly outpatients. METHODS The scale was applied in 302 subjects with 65 years and older and then exa...